Will the Bills Offense Take a Different Approach in 2023?
Latavius Murray (RB). Damien Harris (RB). Dalton Kincaid (TE). O’Cyrus Torrence (G). It sure seems like the Bills are aiming to look a little different on offense this season.
This isn’t to say that they’ll suddenly turn into the ‘93 Cowboys. But it does appear that they are trying to add different dimensions to the offense instead of just asking Josh Allen to be Superman every week.
Allen is clearly one of the best quarterbacks in the game. And that’s been both an advantage and a detriment to the Bills offense. At times, they’ve been too reliant on him. And if the passing game isn’t clicking, they haven’t really had any good alternatives.
Even the running game has been too reliant on Allen. While the Bills may have finished as the 7th ranked rushing attack in terms of yards per game last season, they also had the 2nd-highest percentage of rushing yards come from QB scrambles. Take those away, and their non-QB run game ranked just 18th in the NFL.
Which could be why we saw the moves we did this offseason. The Bills realized you can’t just lean on one player and expect to win a Super Bowl. Adding players like Murray and Harris to James Cook now gives them a 3-man combination that should be able to provide a sustained rushing attack for 4 quarters, taking some of the pressure off of Allen.
We’re also likely to see O’Cyrus Torrence at some point in the season if he doesn’t start right from Week 1, giving the Bills a physical edge that appeared to be lacking against a team like the Bengals in the Divisional Round Playoffs last season.
This brings us to the Bills’ other early-round offensive draft pick, tight end Dalton Kincaid. A wide receiver in tight end’s clothing, he’ll create plenty of matchup issues for defenses. I imagine we’ll see more snaps of 12 personnel featuring Kincaid and Dawson Knox. That will give the Bills the flexibility to throw the ball if the defense matches up with bigger personnel or run it if the defense comes out lighter.
And from a matchup standpoint, having those two on the field with Stefon Diggs at the same time is a pretty unique mix of skillsets that the defense will have to match up to.
There’s been a lot of upgrades across the AFC East this offseason, but don’t sleep on the Bills just because they’re old news. That offense should be as good as ever in 2023.
Before we officially move ahead into this season, here’s a look back at the Bills’ team stats and NFL rankings from 2022:
